Cotton swab strip

ABSTRACT

A series of cotton-tipped applicators or swabs are releasably held in a side-by-side arrangement by a swab retaining strip having a plurality of swab retaining notches which are shaped for snap-in retention of the sticks of the swabs. The retaining strip has a pair of marginal portions which flank and are hingedly connected to an intermediate portion, the marginal portions being held at right angles to the intermediate portion when the swab sticks are supported by the retaining strip.

United States Patent Castner 1 Mar. 14, 1972 [541 COTTON SWAB STRIP 1 Invenwfl 12! Ftnc e imRquts #2. weavin Wis. 5394s 22 Filed: Jan. 14, 1910 [2i] Appl. No.: 2,887

[52] US. Cl. ..206/65 R, 21l/60 R [5|] Int. Cl ..B65d 85/20 [58] Field of Search ..206/65 F, 65 R, 56 AC, 79,

206/59 A; 21l/60 R; 221/74 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,233,729 2/1966 Castner ..206/56 AC 8/1962 Rocchietal ..zos/esr 1/1964 Tingley ..2ll/60R Primary Examiner-William T. Dixson, Jr. Attorney-Hill, Sherman, Meroni, Gross & Simpson ABSTRACT A series of cotton-tipped applicators or swabs are releasably held in a side-by-side arrangement by a swab retaining strip having a plurality of swab retaining notches which are shaped for snap-in retention of the sticks of the swabs. The retaining strip has a pair of marginal portions which flank and are hingedly connected to an intermediate portion, the marginal portions being held at right angles to the intermediate portion when the swab sticks are supported by the retaining strip.

3 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures PAIENTEDMAR 14 m2 v Q a 5 INVENTUR.

\ w; M @s I (22222 6463222 mime AT'I'ORNEYS COTTON SWAB srmr BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to carded swabs and more particularly to swab retaining strips which receive swab sticks in a snap-in retention relationship.

2. Description of the Prior Art The packaging of swabs has generally included the provision of a swab retaining card having a pair of marginal edge portions disposed at an angle to an intermediate base portion, wherein each of the marginal portions includes a plurality of aligned apertures for receiving the swab sticks by way of a corresponding plurality of slits which connect each of the apertures to the outer edge of the retaining strip. The swab sticks are forced through these slits to be seated and retained in the apertures. It is clearly evident that these techniques, however, require, a certain degree of accuracy in mass fabrication to properly align moving swab sticks with the slits of a moving retaining strip. In addition, it is also evident that the material of the retaining strip on either side of a slit undergoes a great amount of distortion when receiving swab sticks.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the invention, a carded strip of swabs is provided in which the swab sticks are received by a swab retaining strip in a snap-in relationship, the sticks being received in shaped notches which guide and releasably engage the sticks in a resting position.

Each of the swab holding notches is formed by a pair of intersecting circular notches. The first of the circular notches is of substantially the same diameter as the diameter of a swab stick and provides the final resting position for the swab stick. The second circular notch is of a greater diameter than the swab stick and intersects both the first circular notch and the outer edge of the retaining strip at chordal dimensions of the second circular notch which are less than the diameter thereof, the chordal dimension at the intersection with the first circular notch being less than the diameter of a swab stick. The edges of the second circular notch therefore serve to guide the swab sticks toward the first circular notch and the material of the retaining strip adjacent the intersection of the notches provides the snap-in feature for releasable engagement of the swab sticks with the retaining strip.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Other features and advantages of the invention, its organization, construction and operation will be best understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a portion of an unfolded swab retaining strip constructed in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an end view of a carded strip of swabs according to the invention; and

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a portion of the carded swab construction taken along the line Illlll of FIG. 2.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In the drawings there is illustrated a carded swab construction including a pair of adjacent swab sticks 11 and 12 which carry fiber tips 13-15, preferably cotton. The swabs are supported by a swab retaining strip 16 having an intermediate or base portion 17 and a pair of upright or marginal portions 20 and 21 hingedly connected to the base portion 17 at respective perforations l8 and 19.

The marginal portions 20 and 21 have outer edges 22 and 23 respectively, the outer edges here being illustrated after the formation of swab holding notches therein.

Each of the swab holding notches is a compound notch provided by a pair of arcuately shaped edges 24 and a circularly shaped edge 26. The arcuate edges 24 are provided by means of a correspondingly shaped punch 25 having a diameter that is greater than the diameter of the swab sticks. The punch 25 is positioned relative the retaining strips 16 such that it intersects the outer edges 22 and 23 at a chordal dimension of a punch that is less than the diameter of the punch to provide the arcuate edges 24 as smooth guiding paths for directing the swab sticks toward the circular notch or edge 26. V

The circular notch 26 is provided by a punch '2'7 which is positioned with respect to the perforations l8 and 19 a sufficient distance such that the swab tips are held above any surface on which the base 17 may be supported. The punch 27 is further positioned relative the outer edges 22 and 23 so as to provide a minimum of swab stick travel before seating and relative the punch 25 so that the intersections of the arcuate edges 24 and the circular edge 26 are spaced a distance less than the diameter of a swab stick. The pointed portions 26a I the base portion 17 and the swab sticks as provided by the:

spacing between the circular edges 26 and the respective perforations l8 and 19. This spacing, as previously mentioned, maintains the tips of the swabs'above the base 17 and accordingly above any surface on which the base 17 may be supported.

The punches 25 and 27 have been shown in FIG. 1 as individual punches; however, it will be appreciated that these punches may be combined into a single punching structure with the attendant elimination of a punching operation.

Many changes and modifications may be made in the invention by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, and it is to be understood that I wish to include within the patent warranted hereon all such changes and modifications which may reasonably be included within the scope of the appended claims.

What I claim is:

l. A carded strip of swabs comprising:

a. a plurality of swabs each having a stick portion of a predetermined diameter;

b. a paperboard strip having an intermediate portion and a pair of marginal portions hingedly connected to said intermediate portion and each having an outer edge;

c. a pair of means defining swab holding notches for each of said swabs in respective marginal portions;

d. each of said notch defining means including a circular edge of greater than and less than 360 and of a diameter substantially equal to said predetennined diameter, and a pair of arcuate edges each of which extends from said outer edge to said circular edge;

e. the intersections of said arcuate edges with said circular edge forming pointed sections of said marginal portions having a resilient interference relationship with the corresponding swab stick to provide snap-in retention of said swab stick with minimum distortion of the material of the marginal portions;

f. said swab sticks holding said marginal portions at substantially right angles to said intermediate portion.

2. A strip for holding swab sticks of predetermined crosssectional dimension, comprising:

a. an elongate strip having a pair of marginal portions flanking an intermediate portion and positionable at right angles thereto when holding swabs;

b. each of said marginal portions including an outer edge and means defining a plurality of swab holding notches; and

c. said notch defining means including for each of said notches cl. first means defining an arcuate notch for receiving a swab stick, said arcuate notch having substantially the dimension as the predetermined dimension of a swab stick and disposed from said outer edge a distance of at least one half the predetermined cross-sectional dimension, and

02. second means defining a passageway between said outer edge and said arcuate notch, said passageway having arcuate shaped edges which terminate at said arcuate notch to define points spaced a lesser dimension than said predetermined dimension to provide a resilient interference relationship with a swab stick for snap-in retention of a swab stick with minimum materi- 

1. A carded strip of swabs comprising: a. a plurality of swabs each having a stick portion of a predetermined diameter; b. a paperboard strip having an intermediate portion and a pair of marginal portions hingedly connected to said intermediate portion and each having an outer edge; c. a pair of means defining swab holding notches for each of said swabs in respective marginal portions; d. each of said notch defining means including a circular edge of greater than 180* and less than 360* and of a diameter substantially equal to said predetermined diameter, and a pair of arcuate edges each of which extends from said outer edge to said circular edge; e. the intersections of said arcuate edges with said circular edge forming pointed sections of said marginal portions having a resilient interference relationship with the corresponding swab stick to provide snap-in retention of said swab stick with minimum distortion of the material of the marginal portions; f. said swab sticks holding said marginal poRtions at substantially right angles to said intermediate portion.
 2. A strip for holding swab sticks of predetermined cross-sectional dimension, comprising: a. an elongate strip having a pair of marginal portions flanking an intermediate portion and positionable at right angles thereto when holding swabs; b. each of said marginal portions including an outer edge and means defining a plurality of swab holding notches; and c. said notch defining means including for each of said notches c1. first means defining an arcuate notch for receiving a swab stick, said arcuate notch having substantially the dimension as the predetermined dimension of a swab stick and disposed from said outer edge a distance of at least one half the predetermined cross-sectional dimension, and c2. second means defining a passageway between said outer edge and said arcuate notch, said passageway having arcuate shaped edges which terminate at said arcuate notch to define points spaced a lesser dimension than said predetermined dimension to provide a resilient interference relationship with a swab stick for snap-in retention of a swab stick with minimum material distortion of said marginal portions and which terminate at said outer edge at a dimension greater than the predetermined dimension to provide a swab stick guide toward said arcuate notch.
 3. A strip for holding swabs as set forth in claim 2, wherein said elongate strip comprises a pair of parallel perforations extending therealong defining said marginal and intermediate portions, said strip being foldable at said perforations to provide the right angle relationship between said portions. 